Mission:

(SHPEP) HELIX  builds on 30 plus years of experience in providing academic enrichment programs geared toward attracting students into the health sciences.  The curriculum has been carefully designed to enhance students’ critical thinking, academic and communication skills a requisite for academic success. Our health profession schools must assume the collective responsibility for the development of groups that have been historically underrepresented and have the capacity to impact the well-being of our most vulnerable populations.  This program is grounded on the development of leadership and interprofessional team based skills that will ultimately impact communities as a whole in keeping with population health and value based care.

Rutgers New Jersey Medical School, School of Dental Medicine, School of Nursing and the Ernest Mario School of Pharmacy have taken this challenge to heart: faculty, staff, students, administrators and safety net affiliates work every day to make a difference in the care of our most vulnerable populations.  Collectively, we must continue to do our part to achieve coordinated care with the engagement of our community based organizations, religious leaders, schools and other socially responsive organizations.  As such, this new and innovative program will cultivate the successful interprofessional leaders of tomorrow who will have the knowledge, skills and attitude to impact the health and healthcare of our communities.

Goal:

To prepare SHPEP scholars as future healthcare leaders that can work in interprofessional, collaborative teams to maximize the health and well-being of individuals, communities and populations. By the end of the six weeks, scholars will be able to:

1) respect the unique culture, values, roles/responsibilities, and expertise of other scholars as well as diverse health professionals,

2) embrace the cultural diversity and differences that characterize individuals, populations, and the healthcare team,

3) demonstrate a commitment to advocacy and service as a means of addressing the social determinants of health and recognize the importance of health care policy and community partnerships on population health,

4) apply effective interprofessional team building skills through the use of multimodal experiential learning strategies, such as simulation-based activities, role playing and service learning opportunities and

5) integrate knowledge from the basic and quantitative sciences to build the foundation for critical thinking and academic success in the health professions.